Future Textile Awards 2018 finalists announced

Technical innovation and imagination will be recognised at the Future Textile Awards, whose finalists have been announced. Winners will be revealed at a special reception during the Innovate Textile & Apparel Europe event, held in Amsterdam, on 7 November.

Hosted by World Textile Information Network (WTiN), the awards celebrate innovation in all areas of technical textiles as well as the essential partnership between R&D and commercial teams on which the industry’s progress depends. Winners will be chosen both for their originality and for their real-world impact. A judging panel comprising leading industry representatives, chief executives and research specialists was given the task of selecting the final shortlist of candidates in 11 categories.

Separate awards will be given for the best innovations in clothing, home, mobile, medical, protective and sports textiles. Other awards up for grabs cover Sustainability, Textile Chemistry, e-Textiles and Machine Digitalisation, while there is an additional award for Best Innovative Start-Up.

The finals will take place at the Hotel Novotel Amsterdam City, Netherlands, as part of Innovate Textile & Apparel. The awards are sponsored by leading high-tech industrial group, Oerlikon, alongside MTIX Ltd, Developer of Multiplexed Laser Surface Enhancement (MLSE®) technology for digital finishing.

This will be the fourth edition of the Future Textile Awards. Last year, the finals took place at Techtextil in Frankfurt, Germany, and previous editions were held in Dresden in 2014 and during ITMA Milan in 2015. Each welcomed host of leading companies and research institutes.

The Innovate Textile & Apparel (ITA) event is held over three days on 6-8 November 2018, and hosts three complementary conferences, each exploring a different theme with innovation at its core. These elements are: Textile 4.0 Conference; Re: Think Materials; and The Textile Business Futures.